San Gabriel Mountains

The Very Cool Mount Baldy Notch Moonlight Hike and BBQ

May 4, 2012

This dog-friendly moonlit mountain hike and bbq is great as a romantic dinner or a fun evening with a group of friends. Beautiful sunset views, full moon, and good food!

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Our favorite hikes of 2011

January 4, 2012

On December 30th, Jeff and I met (slightly surpassing) our goal to hike 200 miles in 2011. We have trekked through some pretty spectacular scenery this past year, all of varying difficulty, topography, climates and ecosystems. These stand out as our absolute favorites of 2011.

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Stoddard Peak — Beautiful Fall foliage hiking in Southern California

November 27, 2011

Stoddard Peak below Mount Baldy is a nice hike on any cool, clear day, but it is especially nice during the fall, when the colors are great!

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Hiking Ice House Canyon to Timber Mountain via Ice House Canyon Trail – Chapman Trail

July 21, 2011

Ice House Canyon is a beautiful hike, and if you do the full loop we did, has a tremendous variety of terrain and scenery. If you’re in halfway decent shape, it’s a great trail!

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Hiking Mount Baldy via the Devil’s Backbone from the Notch

July 15, 2011

A great hike to a great Southern California peak. This strenuous (6.3 mile, 2,300 ft elevation gain) hike to the the top of Mt Baldy it totally worth it.

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The Very Popular and Rarely Visited Fish Canyon Falls Trail

June 15, 2011

Very crowded, but rarely accessible hike to a great three-tiered waterfall up Fish Canyon. Check ahead of time for free shuttle access days.

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Late Spring Snow Prevents Summiting Mount Baden Powell!

May 26, 2011

A classic hike to the top of Mount Baden Powell in the San Gabriel Mountains avoids closures on Angeles Crest Hwy before snow on the trail forces us to turn around.

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Devil’s Chair in Devil’s Punchbowl, Straddling the San Andreas Fault!

April 19, 2011

A great 7.74 mile dog-friendly hike into a geological wonderland called Devil’s Punchbowl out to the Devil’s Chair, right on top of the San Andreas Fault. Located where the Mojave Desert meets the Angeles National Forest, the rock formations and landscape are amazing, and if you pick up the visitor’s guide at the visitor’s center or research it in advance, quite educational!

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Hiking to Sturtevant Falls in the Angeles National Forest

March 29, 2011

A short 4.6 mile scenic hike through a beautiful historic shaded canyon to enjoy this highly popular 50-food waterfall in the Angeles National Forest.

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Hiking Big Santa Anita Canyon via the Winter Creek Loop

March 26, 2011

A shady scenic 5-mile hike through historic Big Santa Anita Canyon in the San Gabriel Mountains, home of the “Great Hiking Era”.

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TRYING to Hike to Big Dalton Dam

March 14, 2011

This hike was supposed to get us up along a creek to some waterfalls, an experimental forest, and a reservoir just outside of town. In the end, it was mostly a big waste of time, redeemed only by a short stretch of shaded creek-side hiking that may make a decent picnic spot and hike for young kids, but if you’re looking for more than a 1.5 mile hike along the water, it isn’t really worth it.

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The Road to Nowhere — Cold War Paranoia Creates a Great Hiking Trail!

March 11, 2011

A 6 mile out and back hike along an abandoned road once hoped to help Los Angelenos escape a nuclear attack by fleeing through the mountains. After they quite building it in the late ’60s, they left behind two brick entrance tunnels and a cool trail up above the East Fork of the San Gabriel River.

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Bonita Falls in Lytle Creek–Yosemite’ish falls in SoCal?

February 26, 2011

Bonita Falls on the South Fork of Lytle Creek: A short, but deceivingly difficult, 2.8 mile hike to the 2nd highest waterfall in Southern California. Lots of boulder hopping and some stream crossing leads to a beautiful waterfall less than a mile off the road in the San Bernardino National Forest.

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